Media in Trouble: All the news thats UNfit to print!

"The information of the people at large can alone make them
safe, as they are the sole depositary of our political and religious
freedom." --Thomas Jefferson 1810

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Security Moms?

Alright maybe I am gonna be overdoing it for some people with this one. But I don't care since the Hannities, Limbaughs and O'Reillys don't care about liberals anyway.

This may sound Seinfeldesque so Jerry forgive me but...

Who are these security moms?

What is this crap I see on my TV about some soccer mom/ piano mom/ karate mom/ MOM in Kansas worried about her kids getting targeted by terrorists. These are the moms that supposedly in the same breath as Michelle Malkin put it in one of her columns "...married with two children... own a gun... and worry about safety of [their] home."

How can you own a gun and feel safe at home. OK first tip for the security moms, GET RID OF THE GUN. In 2002, there were 13,053 kids injured by a firearm fact check and hundreds of others are killed by firearms.

Do you know how many American kids died as a result of terrorism since 1941... NONE!

I think this makes my case pretty strongly. So Security moms in Kansas kiss my ass and get rid of the gun. I was closer to any building that got hit by a terrorist that you will be in your gated community. Terrorists will not strike you out in the Midwest. The terrorists targets are way bigger than your gated community. What will they prove by hitting suburbia... that they hate us for our freedom to have cable TV on a widescreen TV with HDTV and the SUNDAY TICKET?

COME ON PEOPLE. Wake up. Terrorists struck the WTC and the pentagon because those three buildings represented America's strongest and possibly the most dangerous entities our Finances and our Defense.

Not your SUV or your Minivan and definitely not your dog or your kid.

They know who the real evil in this country is and its not you.

So get rid of your gun before your kid blows their head off or worse your kids friends head off and get out there and do the one thing you can do to make this country safer... Take your tax cut, buy a hybrid car, some food, water and duct tape you know just in case and ...

Vote Bush OUT!

While I am at it lets talk about the plans the candidates have to keep the "Security Moms" safe:

Nader:

His main plan is to establish peace in the middle east between Israel and Palestine. He doesn't seem to have made the war on terror a bullet point in his website but Nader has been an activist for peace for a very long time and actually here is a fun fact about Nader.

In 1991 Nader proposed to the FAA in 1976 that cockpit doors be made impenetrable. You know like they did after 9/11.

Kerry:

At the core of Kerry's national security plan is rebuilding the bridges that Bush burned by going into Iraq alone

He wants to strengthen our military by modernizing the armed forces (that's right all the bills he voted for cutting arms forces were for outdated and costly military systems which by the way most of the bills were sponsored or supported by Cheney)

Kerry will strengthen the Intelligence Community by putting more spies out there.

Kerry will also invest in alternative energy resources so we wont have to depend on the middle east for oil. Which by the way is the major source of hatred and economic problems we are facing right now (you know $50 bucks a barrel).

Bush:

Stay the course

Pre-emptively strike any country that has alleged (but not proven) ties to terrorism and nuclear weapons. Somehow, Iraq with all these sanctions imposed on them and with our planes flying reconnaissance missions all over Iraq since 1992 we somehow had the impression that he had the capability to buy these arms and somehow outsmart all those recon pilots.

Increase our dependency on Middle East oil

Forget all about his road map for peace. What happened to that? That seemed like Bushes only attempt at creating peace between Israel and Palestine. Oh well must have fell by the waist side.

Under fund and under staff the intelligence agencies. Somehow, over 123,000 hours of terrorist related intelligence recordings SINCE 9/11 have gone without translation at the FBI. Also over 370,000 hours of counter intelligence has gone by the waist side as well. fact check

Appoint a National Intelligence CZAR called Porter Goss who was a Republican Congressman who has been a buddy of Cheney's for a long time. (don't forget this is one of Bushes biggest flip flops. He was opposed to having an intelligence Czar. I am as well since it only increases the size of bureaucracy in our government and intelligence community. However, if political pressures forced me to I would get an independent guy without a tarnished past.)

Be for Homeland Security Office after he opposed it.

Keep the Patriot Act alive and well so that he could dig into your records and privacy without needing a warrant or a just reason. Hope you guys aren't hiding anything cuz they'll find it if you are.

Be against the 9/11 commision before you are for it and go into their hearing with your buddy Cheney at your side just to keep you honest?

Keep his ties with the Saudi Royal family alive and well. You know the 19 hijackers were really Saudi's not Iraqis or Afghanis.

And finally, what will Bush do to keep you safe? GO ON VACATION before and after receiving Presidential Daily Briefings (that's right Kerry never saw this one) that say "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK IN THE US"

Monday, September 27, 2004

The War(s) Plural

Let us start with something we can all worry about. IRAQ. Let us face it folks, we pay taxes and our tax money is paying for lots of things in IRAQ including missiles, soldiers (alive and unfortunately dead), civilian casualties, security in general, and of course the great reconstruction effort. As Americans we should hold ourselves somewhat responsible for everyone who dies over there. You know solidarity. Like the rest of the world showed us after 9/11.

This IS the issue that affects us all. It is not helping the economy, it is not helping morale, it is a detriment to our national security as many world leaders and intelligence experts have said that "this war has increased the population of terrorists and has been a distraction of our military capabilities". The war on terror is not being fought in IRAQ and for those of you who think Bush can keep us safe from terror, well WHO WAS IN POWER ON 9/11 FOR ALMOST A WHOLE YEAR. Mind you folks, before 9/11 we had NEVER suffered an attack on our shores (pearl harbor was off shore and that was in 1941). I love the pundit's "what if gore was in power". WELL MAYBE GORE WOULDN'T BE OUT PLAYING GOLF WHEN PDBS ENTITLED 'OSAMA DETERMINED TO ATTACK IN THE UNITED STATES' CAME ACCROSS HIS DESK.

As of September 8th 55, 842 people have died as a result of the Bush wars while seriously injuring 114,391 friend and “foe” alike. Given that every human has on average 8 pints of blood in them and assuming that every injured person dropped at least 2 pints of blood. That would make each and every American have about 1 cc of human blood on their hands. At this rate if we stay in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN for another year and a half we will have spilled enough human blood for everyone to fill one ceremonial shot glass (can I get a lemon to suck on with mine?). Maybe we can do it right around the impeachment proceedings should Bush get reselected. We broke it and we definitely bought it.

Facts about IRAQ the way it is right now and probably will continue to be like until the “proposed” election date in January (conveniently after our own election) more than likely it will continue unless we get out.

Security, it’s pretty obvious (unless you are a member of the Bush administration or PM Allawi or as I like to call him Pinocchio) that there is no real security in IRAQ. Just ask Colin Powell, or General Abizaid, the IRAQIs themselves, or more directly someone from the 1000+ families that have lost an American. Regardless of where you are in IRAQ (unlike what Pinocchio said last week) there are attacks constantly going on and not just in hotbeds like Fallujah. Last week Pinocchio portrayed the majority of the country as being secure and even secure enough to hold elections come January. Where in fact, since the handover of power to Allawi, all but 6 of Iraq’s 18 provinces have been devastated by some sore of insurgent/terrorist/US attack. US Troop death toll has increased drastically since the handover. Remember mission accomplished?

Other facts: We have contractors in charge of prisons, violating Geneva conventions. Mercenaries being paid to kill or embarrass Iraqis in the name of the good ole USA. With your TAX DOLLARS. Mind you, if a Muslim is exposed in the nude, according to the Koran, they are shunned, and are damned. That's right no heaven for them, even if it wasn't their fault they were portrayed in the nude. Another thing about the prison scandal. After Abu Graib got major headlines, thousands of prisoners were released. Without a trial or anything! If they were so quick to release these prisoners why were they prisoners in the first place. Seems like they hadn't done anything wrong once Rumsfeld showed up after the scandal got press. What if they WERE terrorists? How are we ever to know? Is the mercenary that just took a picture of that Iraqi in an ass pile the judge of who is or isn't or shouldn't be a prisoner or would you rather have a court decide that. You know the American way?

Other facts: The intelligence that said Iraq had these weapons was from 1991 (ask Condi Rice, she's the one who said it). Saddam never sought depleted Uranium from Niger. There was no “smoking gun.” There was not “faulty intelligence” there was real intelligence from the CIA and all the weapons inspectors from the UN and the US that said there were NO WMDs. This was all very well explained to the President of the USA in the months leading to his decision to go to war. The IRAQ war was unnecessary especially since we were getting close to catching OBL in Afghanistan. You know THE REAL TERRORIST. There was NO link between Saddam and Al-Qaeda (Dick Cheney has flip-flopped on this one lots of times recently). There are even reports that Osama hated Saddam because he was a secular ruler who would kill any Muslim that got rowdy. If anything, it’s not so far fetched that Saddam would have been a target on OBL’s list.

Last fact, if you follow the link to the UN charter you will see that in essence the IRAQ war is internationally illegal. We went in without their support. The coalition Bush speaks of is composed of nations such as Kazakstan, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia. Here is a great link to the numbers of troops "donated" by these powerful nations http://www.geocities.com/pwhce/willing.html#troops . There are only 32 countries and only 6 of them have more than 1000 troops on the ground. That's right coalition? We are the only country with more than 10,000 troops on the ground.

Also, the fact that congress voted to give the power to the President to use force is completely against the rules for war written in the constitution. The power to declare war should never rest in the hands of one person in this country. That's why congress is supposed to have that power. Blame the Republican congress for that, after all they are the ones that brought that legislation to the table. So Republicans, feeling good about your party now? They violated one of the most sacred aspects of our democracy. You see if ONE person has the power to wage war whenever he wants in the interest of national security well, that sounds like as close to a dictator as you can get. I mean isn't that what Saddam was doing all those years? I think I'll wake up and gas some Kurds today, anyone opposed? Doesn't matter... I think I'll do it anyway.

These are the facts and most of the candidates forget about Afghanistan which is about to hold elections October 9th. I wonder if FOX news will be calling those elections. OH BOY! I can't wait until all the precincts are reported in. BUSH WINS! Lord knows if the Taliban will take control over the country again even though another puppet Hamid Karzai is slated to win those elections.

The FACT is Iraq is not safe, not for elections not for our troops not for anyone including foreign journalists. And when I hear people talking about putting civilians on the ground to start the reconstruction. GUESS WHAT PEOPLE THERE ARE CIVILIANS ON THE GROUND. They are called IRAQIs. Have we forgotten about the very people who we occupied, then liberated, and now live in fear as long as US soldiers are there? They have hands and feet and minds, and engineers, and construction workers, and teachers and guess what they are like a real country. With real citizens that have functioned all these years, despite having the whole world imposing sanctions on them and living under the reign of a tyrant. We broke we bought it doesn't mean only our corporations have the right to build it up again. Let the IRAQIs build their own country, then they may actually respect the buildings, instead of having grim reminders of "the bad Americans built this building."

This just seems like common sense right?

So what do we do? Let's hear what the candidates have to say:

Nader's plan - From his website Nader's plan is simple.

Replace our troops with the international peacekeeping forces of the UN. This removes our troops and saves American and possibly Iraqi lives. Peacekeeping forces are not US soldiers, and the hatred that the insurgents/terrorists towards Americans will be reduced because UN Peacekeepers are not the enemy to them. We are.

Hold supervised elections and provide international aide to Iraq. It is true that Iraq has been under massive sanctions since they invaded Kuwait. Now that Saddam is gone, we can lift those sanctions. Get the world together and start pouring some money into Iraq in order for the country to REBUILD itself without the help of foreign contractors etc.

Kerry's plan:

Very similar however, his plan extends to the war on terror. Not just getting the UN and our allies involved in IRAQ but in the war on terror in general. Meaning, if you get the rest of the world on your side (since they aren't on our side now, thanks Bushy) they will more willingly help you find the terrorists that live there. UN needs to help us out, if the UN didn't have any means or power, why does it even exist. You mean to tell me that the UN is jut a jobs program for wealthy diplomats? THE UN NEEDS TO BE INVOLVED IN IRAQ. Some people have said, how do you get the world involved with so much violence. The old fashioned way and the same way Bush got the "coalition of the willing" together. YOU BRIBE THEM. Trade policies can help countries make up their mind.

He wants to train Iraq's own security forces so that they can help the rest of the world keep the peace in their own nation.

Kerry wants to give the Iraqis support to help them get their own government up and running. Meaning Democracy may not be the way but let them decide where they want their country to go. You know Governor Bush said he didn't think the US should go around the world shoving democracy down people's throats.

Finally the BUSH plan: I don't want to lay it out cuz you can see it on your TV's like he said. But to be "fair and balanced" I am required as an aspiring journalist to do so. So here it is.

STAY THE COURSE

NO NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL HELP (he had his chance at the UN and he didn't really do that did he?)

LET HALLIBURTON AND OTHER AMERICAN CONTRACTORS REBUILD IRAQ

STAY IN IRAQ UNTIL THE TERRORISTS/INSURGENTS STOP ATTACKING US

OK folks, get out there and vote for who you think is the best leader and whether or not you think our current leader should be held accountable for all the problems they have created.

Aren't They All The Same?

In an effort to draw contrast that the media seems to fail to do, I will dedicate the next couple of postings to the differences in all three candidates for president.

I will tackle one issue per post and I will attempt to post more often on more and more issues in the coming weeks leading up to November 2nd.

Since the media in general worries itself more about hurricanes and Dan Rather's culpability/credibility (ignoring the real story behind Rathergate which is of course the President's credibility) than the issues that should be covered in such an important election, let's see if I can help all you undecided or decided voters be a little more interested in the whole process of picking someone to lead our country in the next four years.

Beyond the stump speeches and sound bites we hear everyday it is important to get to the nitty gritty. The actual "plans" that these candidates are proposing in their stump speeches.

Since lots of the issues have massive quantities of facts associated with them, each issue will get a post describing these facts. This way you voters can all make an informed decision on whether or not the issue is important to you.

MOST IMPORTANTLY VOTE! If you are one of those people who don't think your vote counts its probably because you don't vote. EVERY VOTE COUNTS. Ask Floridians if their vote doesn't count. Ask black people, or women, gay people, or senior citizens if they don't think their vote counts. Fact is if you don't vote YOU don't count in the eyes of politicians. If you pay taxes and you are interested where those tax dollars are going to, the only way to do that is to either write letters to your elected officials, or VOTE. Take it from a letter writter, it takes a lot less time to vote. If you are not yet registered to vote you can do so here: http://www.rockthevote.com

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Cat Stevens International Man of Mystery

So Cat Stevens was coming over from the good ole UK. Wanted to go to Washington DC. Plane gets diverted to Bangor Maine. He gets taken off the plane and delays the flight for everyone else 4 HOURS.

This should have been considered a terrorist act all in itself. I travel a lot and being held up for 4 HOURS when your a smoker can lead you to lean towards killing someone. At least an accomplice to terrorism.

So what happened? How did Cat Stevens become listed in the NO FLY LIST. The ominous Patriotic Act that has allowed even my ex-colleague to get questioned for being on a business trip with me. I was never assumed to be an accomplice though. THANK GOD for that.

So I have seen first hand what these stoppages are all about. You get stalled at the check in counter (better than the gate) then they just act nice to you while they check with the FBI. I mean TSA. Sorry I digress. (get used to it bloggers)

So Cat Stevens with his beard and no guitar he didn't even have guitar strings to choke anybody with by the way. I mean I have carried my guitar on flights all around this country. Nobody ever checked me out with at least 6 strings all easily with the tensile strength to stop a person breathing. Maybe even just enough width to cause a pretty severe laceration. Not to mention the nice hard wood neck and belly. Thank God my name isn't CAT STEVENS, I mean Yusuf Islam.

So I did some research on this guy, cuz I didn't believe Cat would have changed his name I mean for real. Ok he's a Muslim now but you mean he pulled an Amaad Rashaad on us?

So it turns out http://www.islamfortoday.com/Yusuf_islam.htm you can clearly see this guy Yusuf Islam has been doing WAY too much good in the world with his last Islamic 25 years. Opened up schools, took in orphans (2500 of them) holy Allah. This guy makes a terrorist sound like a good hearted person right?

Not to mention Sean Hannity said he was a terrorist because he disliked Salman Rushdie so much he argued for his execution. So this guy writes a book about Satan and Satanic Rituals etc. He is also a Muslim. But Hannity is now on his side? Hmmm. .. What about Michael Moore, I mean he isn't a Muslim. He is from Michigan. But Hannity I bet wishes he was dead.

So Cat IS a terrorist. There is no doubt about it, this guy needs to ride on his peace train next time around. (I couldn't resist the pun). But wait, we missed a perfectly good point here.

Cat is English now. Or I mean always was until he became Muslim right? So that means he may be a spy for England. Or if he is a terrorist OBVIOUSLY on his way to a good casing of DC, does that mean England are good ole buddies helpin us out in Iraq HAVE TIES TO TERRORISTS? Or are they HARBORING TERRORISTS? Why wasn't he arrested? Why was he allowed on the plane in the first place? Isn't homeland security supposed to PREVENT terrorists from getting aboard planes? Did he have ties to Saudi's? Dear lord. What are we to do now?

On principle alone we should get our asses out of Iraq. We are fighting along side the enemy. IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY no less. I mean if there is such a threat to terrorism occurring again in this country (judging by what Dick Cheney says, you know, if we make the wrong choice...). Why not just have us attack ourselves. Apparently the US is teeming with 'em. And now we are importing them from England, in the form of Rock Hippie turned Buddhist, turned Taoist, turned Muslim turned philanthropist and of course turned TERRORIST.

Muslims of the US Sorry. From the bottom of my heart, you would think that after doing the same to the Japanese, and Germans, we would know better.

Thanks Hannity for the in depth analysis of Cat Stevens. TERRORIST AT LARGE.

"The Koran makes it clear, if someone defames the Prophet, then he must die. The backlash over reports that I'd supposedly endorsed the death sentence that Islamic fundamentalists had levied against Salmon Rushdie for the alleged blasphemy of The Satanic Verses hurt quite a lot because that whole episode was taken out of context. But it was merely a reiteration of scriptural principle, not a literal call to action. And there are elements within the press who really have no loyalty to anybody except a good headline. If you were to ask somebody, 'What does the Bible say about adultery?' they would have to quote chapter and verse -- that's the honest thing to do. And you'd find bits in the Bible that say you should stone the person. Now, that means the President of the United States is eligible for stoning. That doesn't mean anybody's gonna do that!" - Cat Stevens

A first step in a (hopefully) long journey

If you don't watch TV, listen to radio, or read the newspaper. I suggest you start.

Otherwise you wont be getting too much out of this blog. Yeah so I joined the blogosphere because I saw it as a good first step for man and a giant leap for mankind. The blog is something that has taken the internet too long to develop and get some kind of clout.

You may have heard that recently blogs have been in the news, mainly because there are lots of blogs (hopefully like this one will someday be) that have been questioning or even contributing to the news.

This blog will hopefully bring you all a fresh air of media that you may not have had. This blog is going to be dedicated to getting some news stories out there that either don't get out there or don't get out there enough.

American's eyes have been closed too long. If you travel to another country you realize how different the media is how much more gore is exposed.

Hopefully I can expose at least some of the gore for you all.

I will attempt to put my sources up anytime I put a story up. As much as I would like for this blog to be journalistic meaning, straight who, when, what, why, where, and how; I have a job and don't have the time to be out there getting the stories. I will use only the internet, tv, radio, and any other media to prove my points.

Think of this as op-ed with as much truth as I can possibly keep.

Why? The media is a powerful tool in any society. In order to talk about the news you have to know the news, so the only way to get the news is from the various sources above. This shifts the balance towards the media in terms of shaping dialogue in our society.

Since there are only 24 hours in a day and even the networks that have the power to show news that long show the same stuff over and over again. I want to be able to give you guys the news you have no way of getting through your regular day to day media outlets.

Ill do the work for you! So Enjoy and comment, and hopefully we can have lots of fun, and make some change for the good of this country and the world.

As Bartles and James once put it:

We thank you for your support!

Don't Forget to sign up as a member in order to get updated posts. It will make it that much easier for me.

About Me

I am hoping to trade full time someday. I currently use Price Headley's trading system particularly combining %R and Acceleration bands. I have been following the market for about 5 years now and am determined to be a fulltime trader in the next few years.
I have a MS in Biology and currently work in the Pharmaceutical industry as an Operations Manager for Clinical Trials (as fun as it sounds) and I am more than happy to take a job as a financial analyst covering the Pharma sector.